Meta

Life is Fragile

I’ve been thinking about this today: life is fragile.

We are here, and a moment later, we can be gone. Situations change and life changes. Life can change forever in the blink of an eye. The occurrences in Paris this week are reminders that life changes. And the changes made can’t be unchanged. And then, rude though it is, life goes on.

I heard yesterday that a friend is losing her job. It’s not life and death but it’s one of those sudden unplanned changes that have the potential to turn your world upside down. I think of another friend whose world hasn’t been the same since his partner suicided, or an work colleague who didn’t come into work one morning – she’d had a brain aneurysm at the age of 39. We never know what’s just around the corner. I often think of that saying, “there but for the grace of God, go I” when I see a homeless person or a stumbling drunk, or hear of a gambling addict or someone in a car accident – that could have been me.

Life Is Fragile. And in acknowledging the fragility, we also acknowledge that what we have is precious.

I imagine an egg with a tiny hole in the top and bottom of the egg where the white and yolk have been blown out, leaving the hollowed out shell in tact. The shell is all that’s left.. and it is beautiful but fragile – easily broken by one stray move, one unintentional trip on the footpath that is life.

I’m not coming at this from an pessimistic angle – it’s more along the lines of ‘stuff happens’ – life happens, whether we’re ready for it or not. Your life and mine, and what we have or don’t have, will not stay the way it is right now.

We. Are. Fragile.

I am fragile. Life is fragile. Life is precious.

Take time – to think about what you have; to appreciate what you have; to appreciate who you have in your life right now.

Take time to remember the ‘you’ that you are today. Be gentle with you- treasure and nurture you. Because life is fragile and you are precious. And who knows what tomorrow holds?